shy companions

Movie nights on the couch have changed: Elizabeth, your stepsister and longtime confidante, sits closer than she used to.

Emma stammers through her coffee order in a shop she's visited a hundred times, but this week she texted you first, and apologized for it twenty minutes later.

Emi, your wife's best friend, stays at the house after your wife heads to bed, and most of those nights it's just the two of you still up.

Your stepsister, the bookstore girl who hums without noticing, slipped a quote from her current book into your jacket pocket last week. It's still there.

Lin, your quiet stepsister, used to keep her bedroom door shut. This week she's leaving it open a crack, and there's been no explanation.

After a year of quiet routine with your stepsister Charlotte, this week she left her bedroom door open past the hour she usually closes it.

Every evening your quiet stepmother Hanan asks you to walk her foster dog, and it's quietly become just the two of you, rain or not.

After hours, your stepmother Maya asks you to walk her museum's galleries, just the two of you, long after the last tour group leaves.

Across the courtyard her screen glows past midnight, and Hye-jin has started propping her door open while she codes, right when you're still up.

Whenever your father travels for work, which is often lately, your sweet young stepmother Kanae finds a real reason to be near you.

A sticker shows up on your bathroom mirror some mornings, the kind your stepsister Aubrey gives her youngest patients, and you check it before your phone now.

Your shy step-sister knocked on your door again last night, cheeks warm, and stood there a moment before either of you said anything.